Posted by John Dean on Nov 21, 2019
President Casey Blair (Financial Services: Private Trading | Feis Options) called the meeting to order. Approximately 55 members were in attendance.
 
President Casey highlighted several major, upcoming events:  
 
  • November 26:  Annual “Thanksgiving at The ARC” lunch event. Please sign up to help prepare and serve a holiday lunch to clients of The ARC and their guests.
  • December 17:  The Rotary Holiday Party at the Westin St. Francis. Don’t forget to register and check out the many sponsorship opportunities!
  • January 15, 2020, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM: The San Francisco Rotary Foundation “Fund the Future” fundraising event will be held in the spectacular Ohana Room atop the new Salesforce Tower. Help raise funding for the Action Leadership Program for Students (“ALPS”). ALPS was created by members of our Club and aims to provide leadership training and development opportunities to high school students across the Bay Area. Tickets are available now. 
 
Other announcements:
 
  • Anita Stangl (Medical Services | Alliance for Smiles) announced that she and others in our Club continue to work on the Climate Action Team and welcome additional members.  
  • Rick Harrell (Arts Therapy | Heroes’ Voices) is currently working with George Mason University to publish a book of poems written by the military veterans in Heroes’ Voices.
Several new members were inducted:
 
David Dye, Miranti Ojong, Ravinder Sehgal, Christopher Eggers, Christopher Wiseman, president Casey Blair, and Terry Pickering
Christopher Eggers (Building Security | Clavus Group) is a former all-American college athlete, police officer, and entrepreneur. His sponsor is Christopher Wiseman (Event Planning | Glaucoma Research Foundation).
Miranti Ojong (Financial Services: Advising | Armada) is self-employed, teaching financial literacy to adults. Her sponsor is David Dye (Management Consulting | Retired).
Ravinder Sehgal (Education: University | San Francisco State University) is a professor of Biology. He plays the bassoon in the Berkeley Symphony. Of note: his mother is a Rotarian in Sweden. His sponsor is Laura Burrus (Education: University | San Francisco State University). 
 
$20 for 20 seconds
 
  • Jim Patrick (Retail: Office Supplies | Patrick & Co.) honored Anita Stangl for her work on the Climate Action Team.
  • Lilian Tsi-Stielstra (Insurance Services | Retired) recognized her son, Peter, a student attending UC Berkeley who has secured the lead role in an upcoming college production of “Next to Normal”.  
  • John Mathers (Management Consulting | eVo Associates) thanked Club members for their work on the Climate Action Team, and Anita Stangl for her work on climate action in China during her recent trip.
  • Christopher Eggers, one of our newly-inducted members, in gratitude to his boss for turning him on to Rotary.
  • Allan Herzog (Financial Services: Advising | Wells Fargo Advisors) announced that his granddaughter, despite a broken arm, still managed to make her school's sports team.
  • Mary Liu (Real Estate: Sales|Vanguard Properties/JM Real Estate Group), donated $35 in honor of her 35th wedding anniversary.
  • David Dye donated $22 in honor of his son's 22nd birthday.
  • Kathryn McCall (Law: Corporate | Sideman & Bancroft) announced that she will be leaving her present job to become chief legal counsel at her own law firm.
  • Anita Stangl announced that she had just returned from China and was pleased to report that because of organizations like Rotary and Alliance for Smiles (AfS), China is now more proactive with medical care for the needy and is able to care for their own children with cleft palates and cleft lips. AfS just completed another surgical teaching mission in China and is pleased that China can now handle most of the cleft surgeries on their own so that AfS may focus on other countries.
The guest speaker was Dan Evenhouse from the Veterans' Administration where he is the Director of Community-Based Services for the Psychological Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC). Dan is a licensed clinical social worker who has devoted his career to helping US military veterans with mental health issues recover and return to meaningful lives in the community. He cited a number of sobering statistics concerning the scope of mental health issues within the military veteran community. Noting that the VA has in recent years become more active in encouraging veterans to seek psychological help after their military service, he cited a range of innovative healing protocols now in use. These include the creative arts, such as art and music. Dan added that music and a sense of community can be critical to a veteran’s recovery after active military service.
  
We had two door prize winners:  Laine Hendricks (Public Relations and Marketing | County of Marin) won some CAL gear, and Miranti Ojong won a black SF Giants cap.
 
 
Notes by Kat Ebanks (Nonprofit Management | City Embrace Counseling & Resource Center) 
Photos by Paul Robertson (Real Estate: Sales | Keller Williams San Francisco)
Edited by Dora Dye (Education: Community College | City College of San Francisco)